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I don't much like hybrid fish, but normally because they have associated deformities (e.g. Parrot cichlids...which I can't stand). Hybrid shrimp are probably less sought after because their colours are less impressive. Personally I like the duller varieties. I'd like some wild types like talldutchie.

Same hear I had parrots, and I like the duller ones, I also would rather sakura over painted taiwan fire reds.

Did a water test this morning to check that all the changes haven't affected my cycle (and that the substrate hasn't started leeching anything after being disturbed). Ammonia and nitrite is zero with nitrates <5 which is great.

I did a 50% water change just in case the hardness has gone up a bit from the dragon stone. Dragon stone is inert and doesn't affect water chemistry but all the holes in it were packed with solid clay mud when I bought it. It took literally hours of scrubbing and a thorough power wash to dislodge it. I scraped out all the holes with a steak knife and still kept finding more! I'd read in other forums that dragon stone can make the TDS shoot up but that's only in cases where the clay hasn't been sufficiently removed.

Whilst I was changing the water I soaked a few more almond leaves and some alder cones in boiling water (makes them sink quicker and removes some of the initial tannins). Whilst I realise this will make the water column very tea stained in the quantities I was using, I added a load as leaf litter and attempted a background to hide the heater. Here are the results:

I used a bamboo skewer to pin them in place, which I think looks less instrusive than the bright green heater.